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| Lucas & Scott starting the 50km ultra |
A gaggle / lots of Moorfoots were involved in the different
distance trail races at Glentress over the weekend. First off at 10am on the
Saturday were the 235 taking part in the trail half marathon, actually a mile
short at 12.1 miles but went all the way up to the mast with 2000 feet of climb
and included some technical single track too. The race was won in a time five minutes
faster than last year by Stephen Feltbower 1:25:44, and he pushed all the way
by ex-Moorfoot James Britton who used to live in Cardrona. Colin Williams was
the first Moorfoot in 1.39:33 in seventh – a place higher than last year but a
minute slower – also second M40. Tuesday night trainer Amy Alcorn had a
cracking run to finish as 4th woman in 1.58.57 and only passed by third place
in the descent near the end. Full results here
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| Nice pic of James Britton leading the climb in the half marathon |
Next up was the 10k Night Run which started at 5.30pm just
as the Scotland Rugby team was getting stuck into the All Blacks at Murrayfield.
Some really good performances here with Darin Dougal taking
third overall and first M40 (43:31), Mike McGovern 5th (3rd
M40 – 45:10) and Dave Gaffney 18th (49:08) out of the 215 taking
part. Full results here
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| Darin and Mike tucked in behind the leader of the night 10km |
Sunday morning saw the start of the inaugural Tweed Valley
Ultras with a sub zero 7.30am start for the 65km/40.5 mile version, with 1574m/
5164 feet ascent with Alan Elder and Andrew Dancer in action. Again with some
stellar performances. Andrew Dancer finished 4th overall (5:53:15 – a
very impressive average pace 8:38 min / mile if you consider the distance, terrain
and hills!) less than 15 mins behind the winner and only 40 seconds off the
podium. Alan Elder earned a very creditable 25th place (7:13:53) and
5th M50, out of the field of 87 finishers. Tweed Valley Ultra 65k Results
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| Alan in ninja costume going well on the last stretch |
The 50km (30 miles) version set off half an hour later at
8am with Lucas Cheskin and Scott MacDonald in action. Both of them set off very
fast with the leader and eventual winner Ben Hamilton clocking 6.30 min/mile
pace along the flat bike path miles out to Cardrona once the Glentress loop had
been negotiated. They were still close together with the leader at Traquair
leading up the Southern Upland Way on the Minchmoor climb when Lucas started to
cramp and dropped back starting to feel the lack of miles training that injury
in the preceding months had restricted. The leader then started to stretch his
lead and eventually won the race in a phenomenal 3:46:36. Behind him Scott then
started to feel the early fast pace and was increasingly suffering in the flat bike
path return stretch from Innerleithen back to Janet’s Brae and had to walk for longer
and longer periods to stop cramp. Having been in a very clear second place he
was caught with less than 2.5 miles to go and then was passed by another 7 runners
as he stumbled along before finishing in 4:47:22 in 9th less than ten minutes
behind 2nd place, and was almost caught by Lucas who finished in 4:49:16
(11th). The silver lining was Scott picked up the M50 prize (by
virtue of the first M50 getting the 2nd overall prize) and Lucas now
has his first ultra under his belt and knows what to expect next time. Tweed Valley Ultra 50k Results
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| Lucas and Scott glad to be finished! |
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| The early leading group with Lucas and Scott trailing eventual winner |
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| Colin keeping Scott company along the bikepath at Cardrona |
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| Scott skirting Inners |
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| Crossing the bridge |
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